Fiber optic telecommunications systems employing optical cables and electronic equipment require the provision of splice points and endpoints, for user activation.
At a splice point, for example, all of the fibers at one end of a given cable are spliced to corresponding fibers of a new cable length to give continuity to the optical cable required to reach a new splice point or a user activation endpoint.
However, at a user's activation point, the fiber optic cable splice arriving at an air terminal box may be totally or partially connected to the cables approach, the so-called cable “drop” which are designed to transport the optical signal to end users of the network. The optical cable fiber bypass, which come to a termination box but are not connected to a respective cable “drop” may go through the box unchanged or amended to a new cable extension to continue towards a new point of amendment or user activation.
At both points, splicing and/or a user activation, the optical fibers may be exposed, if necessary, by removal of a specific length of protective cover of the optical cables to be suitably spliced to respective cable runs, distribution or approach (“drop”), remaining protected inside the seam or user activation termination box.
The splicing and/or termination box can be constructed to meet certain splice points and may acquire more generous dimensions to accommodate a greater amount of optical fibers, in the case of splicing points with a high score optical fiber, or it may be especially designed to operate totally or partially as a termination box, from which the “drop” cables depart and go directly to the end user facilities in a house or company.
The ports of such boxes may be terminated as inputs to branch, extension or approach (“drop”) cables, or take the form of fixed optical connectors.
In case of ports as inputs, a passing-through cable enters the interior of the box so as to have one or more of its optical fibers coupled, each to an internal optical connector or spliced to an optical fiber of an approach cable (“drop”) or a branch cable from the operator or to an extension cord to other parts of amendment or termination, thus having the amendments protected inside the termination box. An aerial splice box construction for fiber optic cables using internal optical connectors can be seen in a previous patent application BR10 2013 009448 0, from the same applicant.
In the case when the ports are defined by fixed optical connectors mounted on an external wall of the termination box, they are built so as to be specially protected against weather and also known as reinforced optical connectors, wherein movable optical connectors (terminals) are also especially constructed to be protected against weather are applied to the end of the “drop” cables, to be coupled to the fixed optical connectors installed in an external wall of the housing. In this case, the “drop” cables does not enter the termination box, the opening of the box lid being not necessary in order to perform the connection or disconnection of a “drop”cable, i.e. intervention from a subscriber of the FTTH (“fiber to the home”) service.
Many fixed or mobile optical connectors having reinforced construction are known and are, mostly, for exclusive use by the developers thereof. However, there are also many fixed or mobile optical connectors with reinforced construction and free to use. Considering that the termination boxes described herein are usually designed to serve only a respective optical connector model of reinforced construction and for the exclusive use of the same box manufacturer in which they will be applied, the configuration of the optical termination boxes and the fixed or mobile optical connectors is predetermined, not allowing the operator/installer of the optical distribution network to use different types of optical connectors in a given termination box. In the known constructions, each termination or splice box model requires a respective fixed and mobile optical connector model.
The termination boxes have been designed to be primarily composed of two parts: base and lid. In this type of configuration, the ports to optical cables are necessarily embedded in one of the two parts (base or lid) and all necessary internal components such as cable anchors, splice trays, brackets and the like are required to be fixed at one of these two parts, usually within the base.
Although this type of construction simplifies production, it is often difficult for the operator/installer of the optical network, especially in cases of maintenance. There are rare cases of damage to termination boxes due to: natural disasters or caused by third parties; maintenance of other systems in the case of box installation to pole; reforms in buildings or facade wherein the box is installed, and vandalism.
In the case of existing termination boxes in the market, in the event of any damage to the box there is no other choice but to redo the entire installation, which entails the following: remove the “drop”cables; remove the distribution cables and extension that are internal to the box; possibly remove fixed and mobile optical connectors, fiber extensions, splice trays and passive optical splitters; replace the terminal box; replace the internal components; redo the preparation of distribution, extension and approach (“drop”) cables; redo the seams; and finally reconnect the “drop”cables.